Shen Huiyun, Yi Changjun, Yu Jie, Gou Jin
School of Business Administration, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou, China.
College of Computer Science and Technology, Huaqiao University, Xiamen, China.
Front Psychol. 2023 Feb 23;14:1061813. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1061813. eCollection 2023.
The institutional environment has a significant impact on the location of overseas investments by multinational enterprises (MNEs). However, there remain two research gaps. First, fewer studies focused on the impact of subnational regional institutions on the location choices of MNEs. Second, study on informal institutions has been more limited. This study investigates the effect of the informal institution (social trust) in the Chinese subnational region on the location choices of foreign firms and the mechanism of its role. Using the sample of foreign firms' location choices in China from 2008 to 2020 in Orbis Global Enterprise Database, this study finds that social trust positively related to the location choices of foreign firms in subnational regions. Our results also show that this positive effect is contingent on the formal institution and the cultural distance between home and host country. When the formal institution is strong and the cultural distance between home and host country is high, social trust has a more significant positive impact on the location choices of foreign firms in subnational regions. Besides, the results show that cost advantage, information advantage and innovation advantage are important mechanisms for social trust to influence foreign firms' location choices in subnational regions. This study is important for understanding the role of subnational regional informal institutions in influencing strategic decisions of MNEs. At the same time, it has certain guiding significance for governments in attracting foreign direct investment and for multinational enterprises in selecting suitable overseas investment locations.
制度环境对跨国企业（MNEs）的海外投资区位有重大影响。然而，仍存在两个研究空白。第一，较少有研究关注次国家区域制度对跨国企业区位选择的影响。第二，对非正式制度的研究较为有限。本研究考察中国次国家区域的非正式制度（社会信任）对外国企业区位选择的影响及其作用机制。利用奥比斯全球企业数据库中2008年至2020年外国企业在中国区位选择的样本，本研究发现社会信任与次国家区域外国企业的区位选择呈正相关。我们的结果还表明，这种积极影响取决于正式制度以及母国与东道国之间的文化距离。当正式制度强大且母国与东道国之间的文化距离较大时，社会信任对次国家区域外国企业的区位选择有更显著的积极影响。此外，结果表明成本优势、信息优势和创新优势是社会信任影响次国家区域外国企业区位选择的重要机制。本研究对于理解次国家区域非正式制度在影响跨国企业战略决策中的作用具有重要意义。同时，它对政府吸引外国直接投资以及跨国企业选择合适的海外投资区位具有一定的指导意义。
